Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer speaking at the Israeli American Council conference. He said at this year’s event that IAC “represents a powerful idea whose time has come.” Photo: Pal Photography.

JNS.org – The fast-growing Israeli American Council (IAC) recently drew 1,300 Israeli Americans to its second annual national national conference in Washington, DC, with conference sessions ranging from the Iran nuclear deal to Israeli culture to fighting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Expanding beyond its Los Angeles headquarters in recent years, the fast-growing IAC says it now reaches 250,000 people nationwide through its nine regional offices.

“We have become a movement,” said IAC National Chairman Adam Milstein. “America is our home. Israel will always be our Jewish homeland. And as Americans of Israeli descent we are uniquely positioned to strengthen the relationship between both countries.”

At the Oct. 17-19 conference, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer said IAC “represents a powerful idea whose time has come.”

“If Israel’s enemies can’t do it with their armies, and they can’t do it with terror, they’re going to try to do with an economic boycott. This is what the IAC is here for,” said U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.).

JNS.org profiled IAC before its first national conference was held in November 2014.

“I think the Israeli people are best equipped to communicate the truth about Israel, because they are not naive like many in the American Jewish community,” Milstein told JNS.org at the time. “They know the Israeli people, they know that we have very high standards of human rights and freedom, they know the propaganda war of Hamas and Iran.”

IAC is the lead partner in the launching of the new Talk Israel mobile app, which calls itself the “first mobile app to bring you pro-Israel digital content from dozens of sources tailored to your personal preferences and interests using machine learning.”